Buddy, you want to be in business with Hi Pockets Duncan. With Hi Pockets Duncan, it’s first class all the way!

^{{by way of Proxbid Auctions}}

Margaret Calvert & her colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout Great Britain, as well as the Rail Alphabet typeface used on the British railway system and an early version of the signs used in airports. In the above video, James May annoys her.

Sanborn Maps were created for assessing fire insurance liability in urban areas throughout the U.S. In short, they give detailed information on towns and building structures. To get an idea of what sort of information was collected take a peek here. The title pages above give an indication of the sort of aesthetic and detail found within the volumes themselves.

In 1966 Henry Ford II, hired Paul Rand to rethink the Ford logo.

“After extensive research and considerable design exploration, a new style was worked out, and a handsome printed and bound presentation was prepared in a limited edition for the eventual review by Henry Ford II.  After some deliberation, Mr. Ford finally decided that, when it came to the family name, what was good enough for his grandfather was good enough for him.”

- Allen Hurlburt, Communication Arts March/April 1999

It must be incredibly satisfying to work in that kind of printing environment. Also, hypnotic.

view more of Jim’s stunning work at www.jimtierneyart.com

_{{ by way of Agence Eureka }}

The Last Time I Saw Paris

I’m 15 years old and Max Blechman and I are contemplating the basement level of Tower Records on West 66th and Broadway. Two kids who have no idea why they’re considering venturing down into an area of the store reserved for such oddities as Jazz and Classical and in all likelihood - Show Tunes.

Through the double glass doors we go and as we do we’re hit square by the crisp lilting tones of a bygone era. Without a word between us we make our way to the counter where we ask in unison, ‘What is this?’ A counter jockey  who appears to be in the final moments of a death throe pulls himself together long enough to reply, ‘That? That’s The Coward’.

Holy shit. We don’t know what that means but we know we have just discovered something epically cool. We hunt around the ‘Ts’ for close to twenty minutes before one of us realizes that obviously ‘The Coward’ will be homed under the ‘Cs’. The closest we can find is someone by the name of Noel who shares the surname. We each grab a copy of More Compact Coward, have our suspicions confirmed by an exasperated, yet ever perishing counter jockey and head off to our respective homes; new purchases in hand. Somewhere between ‘Poor Uncle Harry’ and ‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’ I know gold has truly been struck.

Above is a scan of recently acquired 78 featuring the classic ‘London Pride’ on one side and ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ on the other. Though lacking in the mirth of other Coward recordings, T.L.T.I.S.P does not want for charm. For those interested I digitized the track above using the Ion iPTUSB portable turntable. The record isn’t in the best of shape so I’ve done a rough clean up by running it through Audacity. A large version of the sleeve is available to view here and wow what a sleeve it is.